Wonderland Sydney
The park was formerly known as Sydney's Wonderland from 1985 to 1992 and Paramount's Wonderland Sydney from 1993 to 2006. History Two years later on December 7, 1985, TBA Kings Entertainment and Paramount era During the 1980s, Kings Entertainment Company operated the park during the 1980s and early 1990s. The park's former connection to Hanna-Barbera Productions lessened after Paramount Pictures raised its stake from 20% to full ownership of the park in 1993 and renamed it Paramount's Wonderland Sydney. After Viacom bought Paramount in 1994, a successful attempt was made to bring families back to the park by attracting children with original Nickelodeon cartoon characters that were familiar to a new generation. Many changes occurred in the next decade. In 1996, Splash Works expanded, with a new water slide, a wave pool and a new child-friendly water playground (The Black Hole, White Water Bay and The Pump House). In 1999, Splash Works expanded for the second time, with the addition of raft rides: The Plunge and Super Soaker. In 2001, a new themed area called Caillou Land replaced the McDonaldland section which closed in 2000 and opened in 1985. In 2002, the park unveiled Action Zone, a new themed area replacing the Exposition of 1890, which at the time contained already existing rides and added the Psyclone ride. Splash Works also received its third and most current upgrade, with the addition of a child water playground area called Splash Island and the removal of Pipeline. In 2005, the park introduced Fearfest, a Halloween event featuring various haunted house attractions in different themed areas. Though the section for smaller children was closed off, the park continued running many of the thrill rides during the event, such as the Thunder Run, in which patrons ride a mining type train through a mountain. During the Halloween season, it is re-themed as the "Haunted" Thunder Run, with a darker tunnel and more strobe lights, fog machines, and black-light lit scenes featuring the "skeletons" of miners. In 2006, the park introduced Spooktacular, a child-oriented Halloween event. The event included children's rides, costume contests and a treasure hunt. Spooktacular was open on weekends during the daytime, while Fearfest remained open at night. Fearfest got renamed to Halloween Haunt and Spooktacular to Camp Spooky. Cedar Fair era On 14 May 2006, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company announced it was interested in acquiring the Paramount theme parks from CBS Corporation (successor of the original Viacom), including Wonderland Sydney. CBS stated that amusement parks were no longer fit to the company's new strategy. The acquisition was completed on 30 June 2006. After the sale, Cedar Fair began to drop the name "Paramount" from all of the former Paramount properties it acquired, as a result, the park has renamed to Wonderland Sydney in January 2007. The 2007 season was a transition year throughout the park and included renaming the movie-themed rides since Cedar Fair did not hold the rights to Paramount film properties. By the start of the 2008 season, all Paramount logos and similar references had been removed. In August 2007, Cedar Fair announced that Fearfest would become Halloween Haunt to remain consistent with most other Cedar Fair parks, and that Spooktacular would become Camp Spooky. The park extended its regular operating season until the last weekend in October. Halloween Haunt runs in the late evenings on October weekends. On May 4th 2008, Wonderland Sydney opened a Bolliger & Mabillard hypercoaster called Behemoth, which held the record for the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada at the time of its opening, standing at 70 metres (230 ft) and reaching speeds of 124 kilometres per hour (77 mph). Areas * International Street (1985-present) * Action Zone (1985-present) * KidZville (1985;present:formerly known as McDonaldland (1985-2000) and Caillou Land (2001-2006).) * Frontier Austrailla (1985-present) * International Festival (1985-present) * Medieval Fair (1985-present) * Planet Snoopy (1985-present;formerly known as Hanna Barbera Land (1985-2009) and Nick Central (2003-2009)) * Splash Works Attractions Roller coastersedit